Step 1: Sources for materials

Small crystals (lead glass) or plastic "rhinestones" with flat backs can be purchased at craft stores. These are 2mm in diameter - I discovered later that I shoud have gotten bigger crystals, or smaller magnets in order for them to cover the magnets completely, but the earrings look all right as is. The magnets are neodymium discs 1/8" diameter by 1/32" thickness (3.2mm by 0.8mm), from kjmagnetics.com - very cheap, $2.00 for 25. Superglue...buy anywhere for under a dollar.

Tools: A pair of tweezers or forceps for picking up the crystals (if you can find plastic ones, these would be better than metal), and a toothpick for repositioning.

Step 2: Attaching decorations to magnets

Don't separate the magnets, as it's easier to hold them in a "bar" than to handle them individually. Place a small drop of superglue on one of the ends. Be sure that it doesn't flow down in between the top magnet and the next.

Pick up one of the crystals with the forceps and place it on the glue. You'll find that if your tweezers are made of metal, they will glom onto the stack of magnets, possibly causing you to drop the crystal, which is why plastic ones would be better. An alternative is to place a crystal facedown on a surface and then dab the glue-covered magnet onto it.

Since superglue sets very quickly (duh!), you have only a few seconds to reposition it by pushing it around with the toothpick. Allow the glue to dry for a few minutes.

Step 3: Earring backs - just another magnet

Earrings stuck onto a pair of metal tweezers are pictured here. The backings are simply another magnet.

"tacky" or not i love this idea!!! real piercings are expensive, painful and lets face it, some day i won't think 7 holes in my ears are cool anymore lol. i think this is a brilliant way to do crazy piercings without having them for the rest of your life or putting up with pain, discomfort and constant antiseptic spraying for weeks after you get them done. i myself have only your average day one-set of real ear piercings but i want to get them done at least double...now i can do it as many times as i like without paying the $30+ dollars to get them done!! (and earrings can be quite expensive too! O.o) the past few days i have been impatiently awaiting the arrival of my magnets so i can get started lol. so thank you and well done for this clever, fun and imaginative idea :D five stars from me :D

I think you may be looking at the wrong thing. They have a lot of different products. The 1/8 inch diameter by 1/32 inch thickness ones are now 10 for $1.20 but it's definitely not 60 cents each. Here's the direct link to the product page: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetail.asp?prod=D201-N52

(By the way, I wrote this like years ago. Recently prices of rare earth metals have gone up a lot, so that may be one reason why they're more expensive.)

Hello, I'm Daniela from Romania, and i wanna buy from internet some mini magnets like this for my earrings projects. Can you give me a link ? Here i have not seen such magnets, and i was wondering if can i buy them from America with paypal or somehow. Thank you and have a sunny day :) thank you :)

I use these for acupressure to lose weight and stop smoking , My MD does acupuncture and showed me the spots to put the magnets ,It seems to help the carvings for smoking ....there are several sites on it and someone is selling gold plated magnets for about $80 to stop smoking ....this looks nicer then when I was running around with needles in my ear

I just use the ones from old headphones they work ...when I started using the magnets the family saw a TV commercial on the gold plated ones and wanted to buy them ...cheaper to use some gold nuggets/dust I have and attach to the magnets but not sure how to do so .....wonder if I could electro plate a copper covered one